bats

[fastpitch7]

some parents on my dd team (14U) were asking about bats. they said they were looking for a bat that was somewhere around $150 or less.

I know you can get some deals on closeouts on some sites and also some deals on ebay.

I came across a few on ebay. I am familiar with some on there. I have seen some synergys on there and some used rockettechs from time to time.

any input on the demarini voodoo bat? i have never seen one.

any good recommendations?

thanks

[SSdad]

I would say the:

1. Rocketech
2. Techzilla
3. Synergy

There are a lot of girls swinging the phoenix, catalyst, mayhem, etc but the top 3, in my opinion, are the ones I listed

[Hitmechanic]

I find the EVO to rank up there also.

[fastpitch7]

very hard to find rockettech and techzilla for that price. have seen some synergys on ebay go for around that but they are hard to find as well.

i think i paid 200 for my DD new 2008 rockettech last winter and i thought i got a good deal.

[smmartin]

you can usually get a brand new miken halo on ebay for around 150 and they are very good bats see alot of players swinging them around texas and it is my daughters favorite also.

[dittoz]

Honestly, it's going to depend on the hitter FAR more than it will on the bat.

If the hitter is a big strong kid, a TZ or an RT would be fine, but if the hitter is fair to middlin' in size, those are pretty heavy.

The Halo and the Halo-lite at -10 and -12 respectively are also avaiable in the $150-$200 range, but if it's a big kid who has plenty of power (comparably) I probably would stay away from the feather-weight stuff and lean toward something with a bit more mass.

All that being said, unless we're talking serious power hitters, at 14 I'd be surprised if different bats truly made much of a difference. One of the best hitters I ever had was yeas ago, back in LL baseball in 10's. The kid could hit the ball over the 200' fence every time and he wasn't much bigger than a wet chihuahua. The bat he was swinging was so used up, it was almost a triangle and the printing had disappeared years earlier. He had hit rocks, bikes, fences and the local cat so many times that this bat was truly a disaster waiting to happen and the grip was electrical tape! He cried when I made him put it away - it was his older brother's bat and he loved it, but the cracks in the metal were pretty obvious.

Bottom line, as Epstein used to say - it's usually the Indian - not the arrow...
for some good deals on arrows - go here - http://www.softball-bats.org/--close-outs---baseball-softball-fast-pitch.html

[36sdad]

On a whim I purchased a"TPS" Jessica Medoza signature model for my DD. I was checking it out in our local sporting goods store and noticed that it was a full composite bat for only $100.00 bucks! I thought it was too good to be true so I figured for $100 bucks it was worth the gamble. I brought it home and my kid loved it! I went to youtube and checked out some of the videos of Jessica Mendoza hitting BOMBS last year before and during the olympics and low and behold she was using the exact same bat!!!!!! I called Louisville Slugger and spoke with a rep. from their R&D dept. and asked what the difference was between the "Mendoza" and the "Catalyst" and I was told that it was the EXACT same bat except the compound used to bond the layers of graphite were just a "little" different. The rep also told me as far as performance and durability it was the best buy out there for the price. My dd has used the bat for a 1/2 a season and it is now broken in and has that nice "crack" sound when she makes solid contact and the ball jumps off the barrel! I hope this helps you out.

[Nzane]

I went to youtube and checked out some of the videos of Jessica Mendoza hitting BOMBS last year before and during the olympics and low and behold she was using the exact same bat

Maybe the same graphics but the bats the players use, especially in the Olympics, are not the same as their "signature" models.

Yea, I'm pretty sure Mendoza wasn't using a $100 bat in the Olympics......

[SSdad]

Sometimes the end load on the rockettech will help ones swing, and sometimes it will hurt it. My DD, who has always been a good hitter, got even better when she started swinging the RT. The extra weight caused her to use her lower half more and the result was a more rounded swing with more hips and not just arms. But I have also seen kids that swing that bat and can't hit the ball and switch to a balanced bat and now just rip the ball. So it all depends on the girl.